18 AKNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1963 



Space requirements of the Air Force made it necessary to move the 

 collection. An area at Silver Hill, Md., close to Washington, was 

 acquired by transfer, and temporary storage buildings were erected. 

 The transfer of storage was completed in 1956. 



One of the buildings at Silver Hill was constituted as a restoration 

 and preservation facility. With the congressional authorization of 

 the new National Air Museum Building in 1958, this work was 

 accelerated, and creditable shop facilities have been established, to- 

 gether with the completion of connecting roadways between storage 

 buildings and shop. By the end of the decade under consideration, 

 this facility was engaged in the restoration and preservation of 

 historic aircraft and engines in anticipation of the increased display 

 requirements of the new Air Museum Building. 



The decade marked a very large increase in the collection of the 

 Museum. A total of 3,424 historic specimens were added, including 

 many full-size aircraft and, during the recent years, spacecraft. 

 Notable among these accessions were : a Douglas DC airplane, No. 164 ; 

 the "Excalibur" airplane which made the first nonstop solo flight over 

 the North Pole; a Boeing 247-D airplane; a 1929 Link Trainer; a 

 Pitcaim Autogyro of 1929 ; the "Ole Miss" Curtiss airplane ; a "Van- 

 guard" launch vehicle; a Verville-Sperry "Messenger" airplane of 

 1920; a bronze statue of Brig. Gen. William ISIitchell; the "First 

 Recovered Nose Cone" from space; a "Jupiter C" launch veliicle; a 

 collection of original records and memorabilia of Dr. Robert H. 

 Goddard, given by Mrs. Robert H. Goddard; an original holograph 

 manuscript of "Soaring Flight" by John J. Montgomery; a Ryan 

 X-13 "Vertijet" airplane; the Lockheed "Sirius" airplane flown by 

 Charles A. and Anne Morrow Lindbergh ; an "Atlas" launch vehicle ; 

 the "Able-Baker" spacecraft ; a McDonnell FH-1 "Phantom" carrier- 

 based aircraft; the first "space" camera; the "Que Sera Sera," first 

 airplane to land at the South Pole; "Freedom 7," America's first 

 manned spacecraft ; the "Sacred Cow," a Douglas C-54, the first Presi- 

 dential airplane; an early Bellanca airplane; an original oil portrait 

 of Gen. Claire Chennault and a number of his medals; a "Polaris" 

 rocket; "Friendship 7," America's first manned orbital spacecraft; 

 gear worn and used by Astronaut John Glenn on his historic flight in 

 "Friendship 7"; and an original painting of Astronaut Alan B. 

 Shepard, Jr., by artist James Scalese from the Honorable James G. 

 Fulton. 



One of the most important areas of progress during the past 10 

 years has been the increase in the study library and reference files. 

 This collection now numbers more than 12,000 books, more than 300 file 

 cabinets of reference material, and approximately 100,000 photographs. 



